The appeal filed by a Cochise County man serving life in prison without parole for a 2017 fatal shooting may be delayed after the Arizona Attorney General’s Office noticed hundreds of pages of case documents were never forwarded to the Arizona Court of Appeals by the trial court.
Roger D. Wilson put forth a self-defense argument for the June 2017 death of Jose “JD” Arvizu in a neighborhood south of Sierra Vista, but was convicted by a jury in 2020 of first degree murder. He filed a timely notice of appeal which was followed by a formal Opening Appellate Brief in September 2021.
In the appeal, Wilson’s court-appointed appellate attorney, Daniel DeRienzo, argues for a new trial based on alleged errors by the trial judge. But that appeal will likely need to be amended now that the attorney general’s office has been granted permission to substantially expand the official appellate record of the case.
Karen Moody of the AGO’s criminal appeals section pointed out to the court of appeals that Wilson’s case back to an original indictment filed June 29, 2017, one week after Arvizu was shot to death on a residential road outside the home of Wilson’s mother.
But according to Moody, there is only one document in the official record of appeal between the grand jury’s issuance of the indictment and August 2018.
“In short, dozens of motions, orders, and minute entries from the first 14 months of this case have been excluded, including the indictment, superseding indictment, and arraignment,” Moody argued in a motion to expand the record.
Jeffrey Handler, Judge Pro Tempore of the Court of Appeals, granted Moody’s motion and has ordered the Cochise County Superior Court to transmit dozens of records – including defense motions as well as transcripts and minutes entries of a11 hearings- to the court. The process could take several weeks.
In the meantime, Moody filed the state’s formal Answering Brief to Wilson’s appeals brief. Once the additional records reach the court, DeRienzo and Moody have the option of filing a supplemental brief, Handler told Arizona Daily Independent.
Neither Moody’s motion nor Handler’s order address why more than a year’s worth of case records were not provided to the parties by the Cochise County court upon Wilson’s initial notice of appeal.
READ MORE ABOUT WILSON’S CASE HERE
